I was born in 1996, I have no memories of that day. I must have been in the first few months of kindergarten.
I didn't learn anything about it until later in life. I think I first learned about it from a friend of mine who I started hanging out with at the age of 11 or 12. I remember one time people were discussing conspiracy theories on the event and he told them they were idiots and that he knows it was a terrorist attack because he witnessed it personally. When he said this I imagined that he must have been living in New York at the time which made sense because he had a poster of the NYC skyline before the towers fell but later he explained the true story.
He said that he witnessed it at school, here in California, because on that day there was a television in the classroom to watch some kinda educational program but when the news broke, that is what was on TV. His teacher was freaking out about it and explained to the kids that it was a big deal and it was very scary, he bought into all of the propaganda and today he has a strong distaste for Muslims but he was also raised in a deeply racist household.
I'm glad I was raised better and that that particular story wasn't pushed on me with such fear by adults I trusted. He's not the only friend of mine that tells me they watched it on TV at school. I don't know the truth of the story, nobody does really but I think it's pretty fucked up the way they pushed fear into the hearts of so many Americans to justify flexing of the imperial military power that we're all forced to pay for.
I often wonder what will become of the official narrative of these events as time unfolds.
Similar to your friends, I witnessed the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion on TV while I was in grade school. I remember thinking at the time that I had just seen something I wasn't supposed to. The teachers in the room were in shock and didn't know how to react. They just stared at the TV screen in disbelief. It was a really strange moment to be a part of.